Clearer then Ice
by Stormglass
Summary: Axel is missing his dear friend Roxas and ends up meeting a complete stranger. She could possibly become someone special. A "sticky" situation could be the beginning of a love story. AXEL/LEA x OC


_DISCLAIMER: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Heck I dont even own the story. My best friend wrote this for me cause I love Axel/Lea. :D_

"Roxas…" I sighed as the wind blew across the courtyard. I was watching another sunset at our spot. It was even redder than usual and made me think of him even more. My ice cream is dripping now, the way he would let it go when he was thinking about something. It's been melting for awhile, and it's going to take forever to clean my gloves off. I thought I could be here, eating ice cream on my day off. I thought I could do this; that it would make me feel closer to him. But as I sat here staring off into the sunset, memories shining in the light, I realized that I was waiting for him again. I was waiting for him to come around that corner and laugh at me, tell me I was being too sentimental or something like that.

If he ever comes back I doubt he would even recognize me. I got way too mushy and light hearted lately, but people tell me it's because of my exposure to Sora. That boy has been known to unlock any heart and bring it to the light. They say it's not my fault that I've flipped sides, got myself a keyblade. But being here still feels wrong without Roxas. But I'm sitting here anyway, waiting for a glimmer of my friend. I looked down at my ice cream and watched it drip down to the courtyard, and then I realized I had bought two. Two ice cream sticks for two people… I really am getting soft hearted. I shouldn't even be here. I'm just wasting my time. I should be out there looking for him, but what am I doing on my time off? Yep…..I'm sitting here.

"Stupid bonehead!" I shouted as I shot to my feet on the very edge of the ledge. The wind was blowing hard enough to make me sway a bit but I didn't care. First one and then the second melting ice cream went sailing toward the sunset. Who knows, maybe they made it there to melt faster, but it sure felt good throwing things again.

"Oh Roxas…." I muttered. _Why did I have to be the dummy to become friends with a nobody?_

"**I can't believe I got away!" I said excitedly as I looked around. Ivy was at the mansion exploring some silly computer system. She'd been at it for hours and I had to get a breath of fresh air. Everything was beautiful. The sunset was amazing as I walked around and saw it peeking through the buildings. I kinda knew this area, it was really familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it exactly what this place was… so I decided to explore some more and hope it'll jog my memory. The music was pretty familiar too. Maybe it'll come back to me. I walked past an ice cream shop and thought to pick up some on the way back for me and Ivy. Right now it was time to explore! I checked out every nook and cranny until I started heading uphill, and then things started clicking into place. My memory was being jogged and so I practically ran uphill until suddenly the buildings fell away and there was this beautiful view. There was a huge courtyard with a big view of the sunset on one side, and then a building with a clock tower attached on the other side of the courtyard. **

"**whoah, look at that view….ah!" I glared around as I looked for what splattered me on the head. I gingerly reached up and touched what was in my hair and shivered as I felt the cold sticky wet stuff soaking into my hair. I jerked my hand back and stared at it, and felt the wet stuff between my fingers.**

"**Sugar..?" I thought out loud and sniffed it. Then I looked up at the clock tower and I saw him. He was beautiful! His spiky red hair glowing in the sunset, his fiery green eyes as he looked determinedly into the sunset without even flinching, he was amazing. And then I zeroed in on his hands as he clapped them together in a "that's that" kinda move and realized the stuff all over his hands was the same color as the stuff in my hair.**

"**How dare he throw something at me?! All I was doing was walking! Ooooh he's gonna get a piece of my mind when I get up there!" I half shouted as I stomped toward the building. I slammed open the door and marched toward the stairs.**

I sighed again as I sat back down. I stared off into the distance for awhile thinking about nothing at all. I knew it was dangerous but I couldn't help it. Today is the second anniversary of the first day Roxas had joined the Organization. It was hitting me harder than I thought it would. Oh well, I thought as I stood to leave, guess my time off is over. Time to get back to work.

When I turned toward the stairs though, I noticed something flicker on the wall below me on the tower. I hopped off the ledge immediately and summoned my new keyblade in one hand, and a chakra in the other. I watched the ledge while backing toward the stairs, only for my fighting skills to kick in and notice someone, or something, coming up behind me. I hopped back away from the feeling of foreboding just as a shadowy hand shot past me. Neoshades. Great. The worst of all Heartless, especially in tight quarters.

"Now, you creatures do know that this place is special to me right?" I asked them sarcastically as I threw my chakra at the first Neoshade, and another one burst out of the ground. This new one must have come from the wall below. I fought off more and more as they showed up. I started using my keyblade and kept sending my chakras out after others. It always seemed like there was 5 at a time no matter what I did. But I laughed it off anyway, besides I could always jump off the tower and get away from these stupid heartless. No worries right?

**After a couple of sets of stairs I started to feel the burn, but I was determined to get to the top of this crazy tower. By the time I reached the top of the stairs though, it was getting a little hard to breathe. Nothing I can't handle, but I decided to hang back and lean against the wall for a minute.**

**As I'm standing there, this big spiky disc comes from around the corner and goes whizzing past me out into the open air. After a tiny bit, the creepy Frisbee heads back the way it came like some boomerang from the dark ages. It was wicked! So, I peeked around the corner to see the rest of the action. **

**There he was, my beautiful target, holding his own against…guys in black pajamas? Really? Well, at least they were putting on a good show. Red, which is what I decided to call him, was waaaaaayyy better than the competition, who somehow beat me up the stairs. The only problem was the creepshow ninjas weren't playing fair. The one closest to me was planning some kind of sneak attack. He was looking for an opening as I was sneaking up on him, my trusty purse at the ready to wallop him with it. Ready, aim, FIRE! Down he goes. It was worth it, carrying a 1,178 page book in your purse. You never know when you need to smack someone upside the head.**

**I put my purse back on my shoulder and winked at Red, who stared at me in astonishment for a few seconds and then practically flicked away an oncoming bad guy as he was heading toward me. **

"**What in blazes do you think you're doing?!" Red shouted over the noise of battle.**

"**Saving you're hide, what do you think?!" I replied as I hit another one with my purse. That was the problem though, pajamas number one woke up and stared at me for a long moment. You could tell he was mad because he rolled his shoulders while he stared at me. I didn't hit pajamas two hard enough either cause we had a blinking contest after a few moments. Their eyes were this glowing yellow, and it was creeping me out. Curse me to blink at a time like this, my terrible luck and all that, but of course they had to try and pounce on me the moment I do. Luckily, Red somehow got in between me and thing one and thing two destroying them both in two seconds flat. **

**Finally, we were close enough to touch! I couldn't even remember why I was mad at him anymore, he was that powerful and drop dead gorgeous. He smelled like wood smoke on a crisp autumn day, oh it was amazing! And his voice was absolutely perfect in every way! There was no way I could stay mad at someone so amazing.**

"**I think I'm the one that's doing the saving here, don't you?" he said sarcastically as he continued the fight with me and him only about an inch apart. He was standing behind me deflecting attacks left and right. It was amazing to be that close to a real battle. I was soo happy I could have screamed. But amazingly enough I didn't. After a while though, Red started to slow down and I got worried. He had been fighting nonstop for who knows how long. I knew my purse was doing nothing to the creepers. To be honest I didn't know what to do.**

I knew this wasn't going to be easy, but the girl was complicating things. If I was my old self, I would have just ditched the girl and went through a portal. If I could use a portal I would have dragged us both out of there. But since this keyblade showed up, I haven't been able to use portals at all. It's awful annoying being whole, should have known better than to believe being whole was what I wanted. Now I'm human and lacking important abilities to way I know how to fight now…

The Neoshades had us blocked from the stairs, and our only way down. Since I've been keeping them from dinner they got smart and started edging us toward the open air, hoping I would lose my balance and we would fall to our deaths.

"smooth move.." I muttered as I looked down behind us for a quick second. No one was in the courtyard and no Neoshades on the tower walls, yet. It seemed like they were coming from the stairs now, instead of climbing up the building. My chakras came back to me at the same time and I caught them with one hand while slicing through yet another heartless. They had us completely backed up to the fancy overhang we always sat on while we were here; all that was left behind us was open air. Then a very stupid idea hit me…..

"**Hey girly, wanna do something stupid?" Red asked me suddenly, as he whacked another ninja away from us.**

"**I dunno," I replied with a grin, "what do we do in this stupid idea?"**

"**Well…." He said drawing the word out really long as he glanced behind us. I followed his gaze down to the courtyard below and then gasped.**

"**No way… nuhuh. Not happening!" I replied glaring back at him.**

"**Hey, I said it was stupid, but it's our only option. I can't fight these guys with no room for long. It takes space to kill these creatures, and if you haven't noticed, we're out." He said killing three in one strike, but there was still more waiting to take their places. I stared down at the courtyard for a long moment and gulped. **

**Red steps in front of me and starts fighting a little harder, but we weren't gaining ground. At one point he was having a pushing match with one and it almost knocked us both off. He grabbed me and righted us both in the nick of time. For a moment there, I thought I was gonna die….**

"**Now or never!" Red shouts and throws his wicked sword away.**

"**you're crazy!" I yelled back as I watched him take one Dark Age Frisbee in each hand.**

"**hop on I'm leaving!" He shouts and turns his back to me.**

"**You're insane!" I shout as I see him gear up to jump. But for some crazy, stupid, insane reason I hopped onto his back and locked my arms around his shoulders in a death grip, holding onto my own arms. He started to run toward the edge of the tower, and then it felt like we just kept going, didn't even feel like he jumped. I had my eyes tightly closed and against his neck, so I didn't see when we jumped. But I finally peeked and instantly regretted being scared at all. Somehow we were running down the tower. It was amazing! Unbelievable! Total adrenaline rush!**

**Red was running down the tower and toward the stairs that led into the building. For a moment I thought we were just going to keep on going, and end up running down those stairs, but Red had other plans. He started slowing his steps as we got closer to the ground, and then he threw his Frisbees so that they stuck in the wall, making a platform. He slowed down and slowed down, then put both feet on the Frisbees and jumped. We did this gravity defying spinning jump that jolted my hold on him and separated us. **_**This is it, **_**I thought to myself, **_**this is the end.**_

**The next thing I knew he was holding me and we were rolling on the floor. I started giggling as we slowed to a stop. I couldn't help it, going from falling on my head and breaking my neck to Red, my beautiful target, holding me! Our eyes met for the first time without any ninjas in between us, and he smiled, then we both busted out laughing. We laid there for a minute catching our breath, thankful to be alive, when we heard footsteps. I totally freaked out and tried standing up too fast. Turns out that spinning jump left my head spinning, so I just sat there. Red could deal with this next problem by himself.**

I knew who it was before I even looked. She had this way of running flat out that sounded really loud when she was upset. She could be silent with her walking when she wanted to, but obviously she wasn't trying to sneak up on anyone. I sighed and just laid there. I nudged the girl newbie and held up three fingers and then counted down. By the time I got to one, she was in earshot.

"Enna, I swear, next time I'll leave you chained up somewhere till I can train you. This isn't a video game and you can't just walk off whenever you want to! When you've been trained to defend yourself and prove that you can use those skills, sure you can go to whatever world you want to, within reason, but not until you're ready…" she was half muttering and half shouting, the way she does when she's upset. You know, I think she mothers all of us just a little too much. But with newbies like Enna, I looked at the girl and sighed. Ivy is so overprotective she makes Riku look like he doesn't do enough.

"Cool it Ivy," I whined with another sigh, "I protected you're precious newbie."

Enna, well I think that was her name, looks up at me suddenly and glares. "Oh really?! Who was protecting who? Cause I sure remember one of those creepshow ninjas sneaking up on you. He would have destroyed you if I hadn't have distracted him!"

"Oh please," I said closing my eyes. Then I started laughing. "creepshow ninja…. I like that. I'll have to tell Cloud that one sometime, just to see his reaction. Besides," I said waving my hand when I heard her breathe in real deep, "I was the one who actually killed the would-be assassin, now didn't I?" Ivy started laughing, I suppose it was because of the look Enna gave me, but I was too tired to look.

"Sorry Enna, but he's got you there," Ivy said when she stopped laughing "anyway, I gotta get back to work, we might have found something on Ventus. Can you take care of Enna for me Lea? Pretty please? I really would feel better if I knew you were her guardian today." I knew she was doing the 'you know you want to' look just by the tone of her voice.

"Awww come on Ivy, it's my day off and now I need a nap." I moaned cracking one eye open to look at my new charge. She was staring at me funny… I wasn't sure I liked it yet, but I shrugged my shoulder and closed my eyes again.

"Good. Take her to Destiny Islands for me, Riku can start her training in his favorite spot, Kairi can help her learn, and you can crawl off to the tree house to take a nap. Sounds like a win-win situation to me, don't ya think so Enna?" Ivy asked with that sing-song I know I won voice.

I sighed again and sat up. I glared at Ivy as she walked away without even waiting for a yes. I looked back at Enna who gave me this silly little grin.

"Well, looks like you're stuck with me. I'm Enna." She said with a mischievous giggle.

"Guess so…."I replied, running my hand through my hair real quick, and then holding it out for a handshake. "Names Lea, got it memorized?" I said with a smile.

She stared at me funny, and then busted out laughing. Took me a long time to figure out why, then I remembered the ice cream. I yanked off the gloves in disgust and threw them away from me. I think they hit a wall.

"Haha! Now we're even! Oh, and Lea?" Enna asked me cryptically.

"What?" I snapped as I tried combing ice cream out of my hair.

"Don't ever drip ice cream on me again." she said in a very deadly kind of voice. If I didn't know she was untrained, I might have had troubles sleeping at night.

"Wait a minute…" I said as I hopped to my feet and helped her get up. "When did I get ice cream on you?"

"Well…" she said, drawing the word out for a long moment and then looked back at the tower. Then she busted out laughing.

"Sounds like you have a story to tell." I said, looking at her curiously as we walked to the gummi ship.

"Ok so it goes like this….." she says excitedly as we head out to another adventure.


End file.
